Thorpacolypse wrote:Comments: I still think this might be too high, but I had to do my own Marvel family because they were just too powerful for my taste in the book. This puts Mary and Freddy in line with Superboy and Supergirl, which is where I think they should be.

I always think of Supergirl outclassing Superboy on account of the whole force feed sunlight for all of Clark's lifetime thing. I also think that Supergirl is on par with the Junior Marvels since they become fully powered adults when they transform. I thought the book had Mary and Freddy too high and Kara too low. Now you come in and say everybody is PL 12. Nobody agrees with GAZ.

Actually, if you give me a day or two, I actually can prove that I do agree with you...

It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him. -- Batman

COMPLICATIONS:Identity: Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the
Daily PlanetPower Loss: Superman loses his powers and his Str and Sta are reduced to 3 under a red sun, like that of Krypton, and other effects draining or interfering with the energies of the yellow sun can deprive him of his powersRelationships: Superman’s closest relationship is with his wife, Lois Lane. Other important people in his life include his mother, Martha Kent, and friends and co-workers Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and Catherine “Cat” GrantResponsibility: Superman feels a strong sense of responsibility to use his powers for the benefit of allVulnerable: Superman is as vulnerable to magic as anyone else. His Toughness is not Impervious against magical attacks and he loses his 3 ranks of ProtectionWeakness: Kryptonite...Its radiation saps the Strength and powers of Kryptonians, leaving them impaired, disabled, and eventually debilitated in terms of Strength and power effects. Long-term exposure (usually a matter of minutes, less for a large enough amount) imposes the dying condition and may lead to death

Comments: Made my own Superman for usage in the Thorpacoverse. I mean, really, how could they leave off Super Breath?

Clean Up 3/5/12: Clean ups to Clark as I continue my thread review.

Clean Up 4/2/12: Another clean up as I fixed a couple of math mistakes and added some Luck from the new power profile on said power.

Nothing major in this Superman review other than utilizing the new optional Luck Advantage rules, which I dig. Gives you the option to use Luck a little more like 2E but not quite as unbalancing as basically giving the character extra HP they can use for everything. It makes you pick which usage of the HP you are using it for and in keeping the limit of half per level, you can add more flavor to someone like The Question or Batman (Luck [Inspiration], for example). I'm planning on reviewing some other builds and adding some of these to other builds.

And overall, I LOVE the Power Profiles. They're making me review a lot of builds, of course, but making new builds easier and more complete, IMHO.

COMPLICATIONS:Power Loss: Superboy loses his powers and his Str and Sta are reduced to 2 under a red sun, like that of Krypton, and other effects draining or interfering with the energies of the yellow sun can deprive him of his powersRelationships: Superboy is close to his Young Justice teammates and Dubbilex, who he "grew up with" at Cadmus. He has started to forge relationships with Supergirl and Power Girl, but things between him and Superman remain strainedResponsibility: Superboy feels a strong sense of responsibility to use his powers for the benefit of all and to try and live up to the Superman legacySecret Identity: He tries to keep his identity as Conner Kent secretTemper: He is pretty hot tempered and it gets the best of him sometimesVulnerable: Superboy is as vulnerable to magic as anyone else. His Toughness is not Impervious against magical attacks and he loses his 3 ranks of ProtectionVulnerable: Kryptonite...Its radiation saps the Strength and powers of Kryptonians, leaving them impaired, disabled, and eventually debilitated in terms of Strength and power effects. Long-term exposure (usually a matter of minutes, less for a large enough amount) imposes the dying condition and may lead to deathWeakness: His body does not process solar energy as well as a full Kryptonian and repeated use of Extra Effort can leave him disabled and eventually dying as his body begins to feed on itself for energy

Comments: This take on Conner is based on his Young Justice incarnation, which rocks. He's still a product of Cadmus, but his full Kryptonian powers have not developed yet so he's pretty much just a brick with a temper and potential. His YJ version is not as strong as I have built here, but I wanted him to be able to have with Invincible and CM3 in a brawl so he gets a 15 strength to match them.

To Gazman's point, my revamp of Conner for my setting bases him more on his Young Justice version, which I really like. He's powerful, but raw and is lacking in full Kryptonian abilities but not guts. I almost made him PL10 since I really think that's about right for a comparison, but again, I wanted him to be able to hang with Mark and Freddy, so he gets a PL11, at least for now. I may make his tradeoff +8/+14 though.

COMPLICATIONS:Acceptance: Everything he does, no matter how inexplicable, stems from a heartfelt desire to find his place in the world.Relationships: Bizarro am Racer Cool's #1 friend.Weakness: Blue kryptonite weakens Bizarro in the same manner the green variety hurts Superman. Its radiation saps Bizarro’s Strength and powers, leaving him impaired, disabled, and eventually debilitated in terms of Strength and power effects. Long-term exposure (usually a matter of minutes, less for a large enough amount) imposes the dying condition and may lead to death.Vulnerable: Being an imperfect clone of Superman, Bizarro's solar absorption is flawed and if he spends too much time in the direct sunlight, his skin begins to calcify and could eventually burn himself out.

Build Comments: I love Bizarro in all his incarnations. I read a lot of the silly Superman Family books as a kid in the 70’s and I always loved the Bizarro World stuff, even though now, I realize how ridiculous it was. Not that I am a mature adult (keep your comments to yourselves, please ) my favorite Bizarro version is the one that Matt Wagner did in his Trinity book with his take on the first meeting of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman so that’s how I built him for The Thorpacoverse.

He was one of Luthor’s flawed clones of Superman that Ra’s Al Ghul (who Bizarro calls Racer Cool, classic) located and was using to help with one of his world domination plans. Only problem was that his solar absorption was messed up on he was actually burning out the entire time so he had to be kept in cold/dark places between uses so he wouldn’t croak. Superman was able to handle him pretty easy every time they met in that book, so I put him a level below my Clark, but he’s still a beast for anyone else to deal with.

He didn't use his Flame Breath or Freeze Vision in the book, but come on, that is forever funny stuff!

Secret Origins: Bizarro is a failed clone of Superman that was created by Lex Luthor and his some of his top scientists. While close in power to Superman, they couldn’t get the solar absorption process correct so his skin calcifies quickly with prolonged exposure to sunlight. In order to salvage some of their work, they put him in suspended animation and store him

The Story so Far: Ra’s Al Ghul found out about Bizarro and used him in one of his schemes called The Purge. He fought Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but Superman was able to defeat him and have him put on ice again. He was accidentally awakened by Krypto and Superboy and flew off to parts unknown.

Characterization: He am Bizarro. He am Number 1.

Friends and Foes: Bizarro has the mentality of a small child, so if you are nice to him, he will be nice to you. If you hurt him, or break his stuff, watch out.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:15 pm, edited 5 times in total.

COMPLICATIONS:Enemy: ImperiexLegacy: He is constantly compared to the Superman of this time and he sometimes struggles with the weight of itMan out of Time: Being from the 41st century, Kell-El oftentimes has a hard time adjusting to the customers and "primitive" technology of this timeObsession: He was trained from birth to fight and destroy Imperiex and nothing else matters to him except making sure the reign of Imperiex does not happen in his futurePower Loss: Superman X loses his powers and his Str and Sta are reduced to 2 under a red sun, like that of Krypton, and other effects draining or interfering with the energies of the yellow sun can deprive him of his powersVulnerable: Superman X is as vulnerable to magic as anyone else. His Toughness is not Impervious against magical attacks and he loses his ranks of Protection

Comments: I really liked the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon on CW Kids a couple of years back and I really liked the addition of Kell-El, Superman X from the 41st century as a fill in for Superboy/Mon-El. He was basically an “extreme” Superman, with all the powers and none of the charm. His sole purpose was destroying the main villain of the 2nd season, Imperiex, who was more like Darkseid than his comic version. Of course, as time went on, he began to become more Superman-like and became a team player and such but he had some good jerk moments along the way and the scenes of him and young Superman (they couldn’t call him Superboy anymore thanks to the Shuster/Siegel lawsuit) fighting together were pretty cool.

I haven’t quite worked the why’s of his being in current day Earth-217, but I will and I do know that he is mainly hanging out at the Fortress of Solitude using Clark’s tech to try and locate Imperiex so that he can fulfill his destiny.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

COMPLICATIONS:Enemy: Black Manta, Ocean Master, DC writers, RajRelationships: Aquaman has a wife, Mera, and ties with his former ward, Tempest, and his friends in AtlantisResponsibility: As King of Atlantis, Aquaman must often attend to the needs of his people and his duty to the Seven SeasRivalry: Prince Namor and he have a long running rivalry for ruler ship of the undersea worldTemper: Aquaman is known for his fierce, warrior temper when testedWeakness: Aquaman dehydrates when away from water for an extended time, becoming impaired, disabled, and finally incapacitated before his condition becomes dying. Immersion in water immediately removes all accumulated conditions

Comments: I've done it enough, and you can find my rants on my old thread, Jab's, BARON'S and others, but I will say it one...more..time...

Get off Aquaman. Don't be bandwagon haters. He is a good character. No, his books will never sell great. Yes, Super Friends made him a joke. But he is nowhere near as useless as his surface rep has made him out to be. And his new series rocks. So let it go. Appreciate the man. Now, on with the post...

Aquaman of the Thorpacoverse. He’s pretty capable, becoming a PL12 underwater and I gave him some better leadership abilities along with the healing factor he showed in Alex Ross’ Justice. He and Mera are both part of the new Justice League when not dealing with his duties in Atlantis. He has a strong rivalry with Prince Namor of Sub Diego, who feels that the Atlantean throne is rightfully his, but both have put aside their differences when the greater good is at stake.

Clean Up 4/6/12: Raised my Earth-217 Aquaman to PL12 and went to town with his abilities, making him the bad ass I want to be for my setting.

Made some upgrades to Aquaman, making him even more of a bad ass than I originally did. And I sit corrected in my earlier comments about his books not selling, this latest run by Geoff Johns IS selling well, so there. And if you don't like that book, you haven't read it.

COMPLICATIONS:Enemy: HYDRA?Relationships: She is currently dating Shaft and she is very loyal to Nick FuryReputation: Double agent? Is she with SHIELD? Or HYDRA? Or is she the Skrull Queen? Can anyone trust her INCLUDING herself?

Build Comments: I was never much of a Spider-Woman fan until the Secret Invasion when Bendis used one of his faves as the form for the Skrull Queen. I still don’t think her being chosen as the one form she could take that would do the most harm is very accurate (I think Sue Storm, Storm, Ms. Marvel or Black Widow could easily have been better choices from a pure Marvel hero tactical standpoint) but she was in a good place to move the story along.

In my setting, she is part time with the Justice League/Avengers teams and is still working for Nick Fury whenever needed, but she still struggles to find people that trust her on any side outside of him.

Secret Origins: Jonathan and Miriam Drew were scientists who were trying to splice and harness spiders' environmental adaptive capabilities, in order to graft them into the human genome. Their research was funded by HYDRA, and their direct liaison/financier from the group was a General Wyndham. They moved to Wundagore Mountain prior to Jessica's conception, as they were advised by Wyndham but this caused his partner, Miles Warren, to finally decide to leave the project. He had long felt that there was more potential in experimenting with the cloning of human cells and the movement of their lab confirmed his decision to leave.

Jessica was born some time after they had moved to Wundagore. Jessica's powers derived from her mother's womb being hit by a laser beam containing the DNA traits of several different species of spiders while she was carrying Jessica. Afterwards, she was raised by her nanny Bova (who was human in appearance), as well as her mother.

The Story so Far: After Jessica's parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Jessica was recruited into HYDRA, under false pretenses, where she was brainwashed and made into a formidable fighter and assassin. She was trained and mentored by Taskmaster, who schooled her in many martial disciplines and more than seven different fighting styles.

Going by the name Spider-Woman, Jessica was ordered to abduct Alicia Masters, who was vacationing in London. During the resultant conflict with Masters’ boyfriend Ben Grimm, she recovered from her brainwashing and joined him in saving Masters. She and Grimm then encountered Modred the Mystic, who removed HYDRA's memory implants and restored her memories.

Jessica moved into an apartment in London, but found it impossible to get a job due to her complete lack of background and her tendency to inspire dislike and even fear in other people. Eventually she was approached by the mysterious sorcerer Magnus, who offered help. After defending him from Excaliber, who had been sent by Morgan Le Fay to recover the Darkhold, he suggested she relocate with him to Los Angeles. Magnus tutored her in the ways of civilization and informed her that her father had been murdered, leading her on a hunt for his killer that brought her into conflict with the criminals, the Brothers Grimm. With help from SHIELD agent Jerry Hunt, she identified her father's murderer, who died immediately after confessing.

Jessica had a number of adventures afterwards, meeting Spider-Man and joining the Avengers for a time. One day, her powers began to fail and she took time off from being a superhero and became a licensed private investigator and helped fellow PI Jessica Jones on a couple of cases. They became good friends from the experience.

One day, a HYDRA agent attacked her and offered her powers back if she would rejoin S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double agent. Knowing he would kill her if she said no, Jessica agreed and contacted Nick Fury, who confronted her securely and urged her to accept the offer. He told Jessica that he would feed her limited info until S.H.I.E.L.D. could analyze the HYDRA cell and then use the info to take it down.

Jessica's double-agent status was cause for a great deal of mistrust between herself and others. After Nick Fury is ousted as head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica is confronted by the new director, Maria Hill, about her loyalties. Jessica remained loyal to Fury rather than the leadership in S.H.I.E.L.D. She also had conflicts with her teammates in the Avengers because of her divided loyalties.

It is later revealed that the Jessica who had joined the Avengers and was acting as a double-agent under the command of Nick Fury was not Jessica Drew at all, but instead a Skrull imposter. When she went undercover to regain her lost powers, she was ambushed by the Skrulls and replaced by their current Queen Veranke, who took her place in the New Avengers and assumed her role as Fury's spy, in preparation for the upcoming Invasion. In the climactic battle of the event, Veranke was killed by Norman Osborn, setting him up to be put in charge of America’s security.

After the defeat of the Skrulls, Jessica is revealed to be alive when Iron Man found a Skrull ship in orbit with all the replaced heroes. Carol Danvers runs up to her and gives her a hug. Unaware of Queen Veranke's actions, Jessica asks why the other heroes have been giving her strange looks, to which Carol responds that "No one knows what to think."

Characterization: Jessica has been called “the most screwed over woman in the world”. Between her time with HYDRA and double agent status, very few people trust her even though she has proven herself time and again to be an excellent superhero. Plus, her body exudes a high concentration of pheromones which elicit pleasure in men while repulsing women, though she uses a chemical "perfume" that can nullify this effect.

Jessica has lost and regained her powers more than once, but since her return from Skrull captivity, her powers were restored greater than ever.

Friends and Foes: Her closest friends are Carol Danvers, Jessica Jones-Cage and Clint Barton. She also has the support of Nick Fury but she and Maria Hill and Amanda Waller have never seen eye-to-eye.

Her relationship with HYDRA remains complicated. She still works to take them down, but there are factions within HYDRA that want to bring her back into the fold.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

COMPLICATIONS:Emotionally Stunted: Being raised in a test tube, thrown out, then wandering the world trying to find his place has left him awkward in social situations and lacking emotional maturity at timesEnemy: The Jackal and most of Pete's Rogues' GalleryGuilt: Now that he is trying to live the hero's life, he has guilt about many of his deeds in the pastInexperienced: Being new to the super hero game, he can make some rookie mistakesRelationships: He has mended fences with Pete and he will still try to help him when he canResponsibility: Yeah, yeah, he knows…with great power, blah, blah, blah…he's working on itRivalry: With Ben Reilly, and other clones that may be roaming around out thereSecret Identity: He does try to keep his Scarlet Spider identity secret from his personal identity of Kaine ParkerTemper: He is still working on controlling his temper. Sometimes he is more successful at it than others

Comments: A read the first couple of issues of the new Scarlet Spider book with now cured and (mostly) sane Kaine now taking over the role and it’s not too bad. It's your basic former bad boy tries to find his way story, but the action has been good and it's interesting watching someone who looks like Pete not be like Pete except for trying to help. I'm interested to see how this series goes now, I think I am going to add it to my pull list.

Kaine lost a lot of his powers including his spider-sense and I couldn't tell if he lost his Mark of Kaine thing, so I took it off, since I never liked it anyway. He did get the stinger things and organic webbing and kept his claws so he has more options in melee but not is not nearly as skilled overall as Pete or even Ben. He did swipe Pete's Stealth Suit, so that will come in handy for him, I'm sure.

I really like your Scarlet Spider (Kaine) write-up. I have been reading the new comic since #1, and had been anticipating it for a while. Was a big fan of the original Scarlet Spider (though not how the Clone Saga story went, could'a/should'a been better).

"Variety is the spice of life" -Traditional phrase on life and living
"HE WHO CONTROLS THE SPICE, CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE!" -Paul from Dune
"Big things have small beginnings" -David from Prometheushttp://www.RPGGamer.org

Thorpacolypse wrote:Comments: A read the first couple of issues of the new Scarlet Spider book with now cured and (mostly) sane Kaine now taking over the role and it’s not too bad. It's your basic former bad boy tries to find his way story, but the action has been good and it's interesting watching someone who looks like Pete not be like Pete except for trying to help. I'm interested to see how this series goes now, I think I am going to add it to my pull list.

I was intrigued by the new Scarlet Spider, but I was just iffy enough about the idea that I haven't picked it up yet. Hmmm, I may have to give it a chance now.

I don't know if you're planning on doing any more Wall Crawling specials, but if you are I'd like to request a Flash Thompson/Venom build. I've really been digging his current run.

A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

Thorpacolypse wrote:
Made some upgrades to Aquaman, making him even more of a bad ass than I originally did. And I sit corrected in my earlier comments about his books not selling, this latest run by Geoff Johns IS selling well, so there. And if you don't like that book, you haven't read it.

Or you have read it, don't like it and you're a poopyhead.

The new Aquaman book is the second best thing being put out by DC at the moment. Right after Demon Knights

COMPLICATIONS:Enemy: The Rogues, Grodd, Professor ZoomRelationships: His wife Iris, his nephew Bart, The Flash Family, Hal JordanResponsibility: To protect Central CitySecret Identity: He maintains his secret identity as Barry Allen, police scientistVulnerable: Using Extra Effort with Speed can cause The Flash to be pulled into the Speed Force

Comments: My take on Barry. Speedsters are wicked nasty in MnM and in main continuity, really. With Move by Action, they can hit you then technically be in another state and back to smite you again by the next round. Kind of hard to deal with unless you play them very specifically.

As much as I dig Wally, especially the JLU take on him and Jay Garrick (because my name is Jay, hence J-Mart ), Barry is THE Flash to me. I will build Wally (almost done, not a lot changes) and Jay (when I get around to the JSA Initiative) but if I use a Flash, it will be Barry. As a build, I really didn't make a lot of changes to the DCA speedster structure but I did give him more offensive capabilities and corrected a few other things that I thought he needed. He should be a really fun play.

Clean Up 4/7/12: Added a few more AEs to Barry thanks to great Speed Powers Power Profile.

I updated my Barry and Wally with some new powers from the Speed Powers Power Profile, which again, if you guys aren't keeping up with these, you're missing out on some good stuff.

COMPLICATIONS:Responsibility: To Stormwatch and to his home country of RussiaRivalry: He and Captain Britain have a long running rivalry born out of competition over a woman years agoWeakness: His absorption can be overloaded with a powerful enough attack

Comments: I picked up a Stormwatch trade for like $4 at a second hand shop here in my new hometown and I also have the new Stormwatch on my pull list so I am going to be sliding in a bunch of Stormwatch/Authority builds over the next few weeks in between my other mini-runs of Marvel and DC rebuild stuff. First off is Winter, one of the leaders of Stormwatch for a while until he got whacked but of course, like any good hero, he’s been resurrected, but whether he will show up in the New 52 is yet to be seen.

He’s a good leader and a fine hero with the usual power of Absorption. It was strong enough for him to toe to toe with The High, a Superman analogue, for a good while, but he’s not invulnerable enough for a good punch from Jackson King not to bloody his lip. He gets hurt a lot, but keeps on going, so I thought +10 Toughness with half effect damage would be a good middle ground. I’ll have to see how it tests.

And I do love Game of Thrones. I am SO glad it's back. It's the Sopranos with horses instead of Lincoln Navigators.